Hi everyone, so... 3 years later and after many back and forth we have decided to knock down the house and rebuild. The cost of renovating was just too prohibitive and not to mention the unexpected surprises that surely would come with it. We should start the building of the new home in a month or less. Just wanted to thank everyone who helped in this thread, your opinions were very important and helped us decide. We are not doing a custom build, instead we chose one of those pre-designed homes (Dennis Family) but we are very happy and excited. Cant wait for it to be done. Will post photos when ready.

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siri - re boundary construction it of course depends upon the specific context - the issue in this case is the site fall and being on the high side there could be potential issues of building heights from the NGL on the neighbour's side....my comment was also in respect to considering a terrace structure above a close to boundary structure and complexity that would be thrown up with screening and structural offsets etc.....and this is sometimes worth pursuing where space is tight, however I'm anticipating here there is a fair bit of room to move and I'm guessing (an educated guess based on limited contextual information provided ) that a more cost effective/simpler option on a number of levels will be to (a) keep things off the northern boundary and (b) minimise renovation scope and consider a strategic rear extension that focuses on master bedroom zone and cleaning up the main living zone - if the majority of the existing spaces are retain structurally and limit renovation to cosmetic upgrades then the budget will stretch a lot further but net result is a more valuable property - and a more cost-effective value adding proposal that on paper is more likely to be accepted for finance.........this is always a integrated numbers game/exercise We're working on a job at the moment that we crunched numbers on various options & scope/configurations, but the two "shortlisted" of them were very similar - one slightly more expanded and pushing out to boundaries, the other more tightly disciplined, simpler and deliberately keeping building extension off boundaries. Whilst both of the shortlisted proposals essentially accommodated/covered the client's requirements outcomes, we estimated approx $100K accumulative difference one way or the other........

your house looks like an 80's home with a sunken lounge. I live in an 80's single level house like yours and love the spacious feeling, do you have raked ceilings? If it was me I would make small changes so suggest the following, 1) If the eave is deep enough I would push your sons bedroom wall out this would give him a good sized bedroom with access to the next bedroom and bathroom for his "PAD" 2) There is a flow problem with the house with accessing the bedrooms as you have to step down into and back up from the family/rumpus/living at two points. Keeping the "fireplace" insitu I would take part of the internal bedroom to allow for a passage across from the entrance to the bedroom wing. the reduced bedroom would make a great study or guest room. you can keep both step down points or close off the wall from the fireplace to the master bedroom 3) another problem with the house is internal access to the alfresco, at the moment it would only be via the family/rumpus or master bedroom, I suggest that the alfresco decking be split level to allow for large sliding doors coming off the new open plan kitchen. The door into the existing kitchen be kept but remove the laundry which will allow for a bigger dining table. 4) The laundry could be moved into the planned office/guest.pool room which would be perfect if there was access down the L/H side of the house for hubbie coming home and needing a cleanup which would be done in the same space, which could also be his man cave!! 5) The granny flat needs to be sorted by a local designer to get the best possible result, I have heard that a studio is more readily approved over a granny flat (siriuskey)